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Hubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute has moved their news photo gallery to HubbleSite.org, while still maintaining another image archive at Hubble Heritage.HubbleSite Gallery - Hubble Heritage Gallery - Recent Hubble News & Images Hubble Space Telescope Search: You can search HubbleSite.org with their own engine from here, or search either HubbleSite OR Hubble Heritage via Google with the 2nd form below. Be specific; you will get many results. Google Hubble Space Telescope search: The fifth and final Space Shuttle servicing mission (STS-125) to the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on May 12, 2009, and, after rendezvous, successfully captured the Hubble with the Shuttle's robot arm on May 13. Work on the Hubble, then 19 years old, was completed on May 18. During five EVAs, four members of the crew of the Shuttle Atlantis replaced much of Hubble's hardware, including the Science Instrument Control & Data Handler, batteries, and six gyroscopes. They also repaired the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, and installed the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Astronauts also installed a docking device which will permit a robotic spacecraft to latch onto Hubble after the telescope's work is complete and direct a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean. Hubble is expected to keep operating through at least 2030, possibluy 2040. Astronomical Image GalleriesAnglo-Australian Observatory - European Southern ObservatoryAstronomy Picture of the Day, from Goddard Space Flight Center. Views of the Solar System are photos with good text descriptions by Calvin J. Hamilton, describing the celestial bodies and environments making up our Solar System, including data on the sun, planets, asteroids, meteorites, comets, Oort Cloud, and Kuiper Belt. NASA Planetary Photojournal displays images from NASA spacecraft. Virtual ObservatoriesNASA-JPL Eyes on the Solar System "is a 3-D environment full of real NASA mission data... See the entire solar system moving in real time." Use NASA Eyes to see the current position of the planets and planetary probe spacecraft. Similar to Google Earth, NASA Eyes requires a one-time free software download and installation.
The Virtual Astronomical Observatory makes it possible "for astronomical researchers to find, retrieve, and analyze astronomical data from ground- and space-based telescopes worldwide." NASA GSFC SkyView is a virtual observatory that generates images of any part of the sky at wavelengths ranging from radio to gamma rays. Sky View Café is a free Java applet that lets you use your web browser to see many types of astronomical information, in both graphical and numerical form. You can see which stars and planets will be visible tonight, how the next eclipse will look, or when the Moon rose ten years ago (from any point on the globe), and more. Astronomical Object DatabasesSloan Digital Sky SurveyTwo Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST). Telescope MakingAmateur Telescope Maker's Resource List has links to and information about scopes and ideas, intended as a resource for both beginning and advanced amateur telescope makers. Beginners should also take a look at the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston.Astronomy FreewareSky Chart 14.31 MBCelestia 3-D sim 12 MB Virtual Moon Atlas 13.6 MB C2A planetarium 9.54 MB Alpha Centaure planetarium 8.58 MB |
Astronomy LinksAstroWeb is a directory of about 3000 astronomy links from the University of Strasbourg, France. Unfortunately, it has not been updated since July, 2010.Black HolesBlack Hole FAQs are frequently asked questions about black holes (with answers, of course) from the sci.physics Usenet newsgroup.While a black hole itself is tough to see, it makes a big obvious mess of the universe around it. Hubble Space Telescope Black Hole Images include a massive black hole at the center of the merged Centaurus A galaxy (NGC 5128) which is about 10 million light years away from Earth. The black hole is obvious from a huge twisted disk of hot gas that is funneling into it.  A twisted disk of hot gas funneling into the massive black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy. Black holes emit large quantities of high-energy X-rays. So X-ray observatory satellites are used to study them: NASA's Chandra (launched 1999-07-23) is operated by the Harvard Chandra X-ray Center - Chandra Black Hole Images - Black Hole Field Guide - Info Center ESA's XMM-Newton (launched 1999-12-10) - JAXA's Astro-E2 (launched 2005-07-10). Virtual Trips to Black Holes & Neutron Stars, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, are descriptions and MPEG computer animations show what it would be like to travel to black holes or neutron stars. Falling Into a Black Hole provides GIF animations of what it would actually look like to fall into a black hole. Geometry Around Black Holes from The Official String Theory Web Site. Other Astronomy WebsitesThe website of Sky and Telescope has news, sky events info, tips articles for backyard astronomy and imaging, product review articles, downloads, and more.The Astronomy Magazine website includes news, this month's "sky show", downloadable .pdf articles for beginners, software downloads, and several articles from back issues. Imagine the Universe, from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is an educational site with tutorials and lesson plans on all aspects of astronomy. Astronomy Workshop is an online astronomy lab, with information for beginners, and java applets to show orbital paths, impact results, etc. The NASA Astrophysics Data System at Harvard is a bibliographical reference database of over 1.5 million astronomy and physics papers, with links to data and citations. Earth's Magnetosphere is a non-mathematical tutorial about Earth's space environment of charged particles, with good information for all levels from high school to PhD.'s. The SETI Institute says they are "to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe." While they are at it, they might Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Historic Celestial Atlases on the World Wide Web links |
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TIME Magazine, December 13, 1948: Trouble on Palomar The 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain is ailing. Installed last January, it has thus far taken no scientifically valuable photographs of the stars. Dr. Ira S. Bowen, director of the observatory, announced this week that it might not be in working order until next fall. The telescope's most serious trouble is a "bulge" in the massive mirror. The outer edge, 18 inches inward from the rim, is 20 millionths of an inch too high. This infinitesimal error, observable only by the most refined tests, is enough to make the telescope useless for serious astronomical purposes... When the mirror left the optical shop in Pasadena, observatory authorities knew that its edge was "high", but they counted on the supports to correct the fault. The bulge turned out to be too big for the supports to handle... For more on Mount Palomar and Edwin Hubble, see Astronomy Articles |